Your Right to Know

For Omar Rodriguez, being pulled over by police meant more than getting a speeding ticket — it
could mean deportation.

Rodriguez, who was brought to the United States illegally when he was 11 months old by his
parents, doesn’t worry about that anymore. He was given an Ohio driver’s license three weeks
ago.

Some Ohio immigration attorneys suggest a federal policy should be enough to prompt the Ohio
Bureau of Motor Vehicles to continue to grant driver’s licenses to those who qualify — but that may
not be the case.

Rodriguez, 24, was able to get a license because of the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals”
initiative, a Department of Homeland Security policy enacted in June 2012 by executive order of
President Barack Obama. The policy is intended to allow those who were illegally brought into the
U.S. by their parents while under the age of 16 a chance to stay here.

The initiative essentially promises illegal immigrants who meet specific qualifications — and
pay $465 to apply — that the government will not deport them for two years. It does not grant
citizenship or status as a permanent resident. Those who qualify pay taxes and can get a Social
Security card and work legally.

With those documents in hand, Rodriguez, who lives in central Ohio, got a driver’s license. But
Ohio House Democratic Leader Armond Budish of Beachwood said at least a dozen people came to his
office this week upset that the BMV is denying licenses to people like Rodriguez. Budish said the
BMV stopped issuing driver’s licenses two weeks ago to those covered under the federal initiative.
He also said they were “threatening” to revoke licenses already granted.

“It’s a matter of fairness,” Budish said. “Ohio had 200 people who qualified for deferred action
and obtained driver’s licenses.”

BMV spokeswoman Lindsey Bohrer said it appears some deputy registrars who are private
contractors have denied licenses and state identification cards. She did not say whether those
private contractors’ decision to deny licenses were directives from the BMV, or if registrars who
are not private contractors made the same decision.

“Our legal department is in the process of reviewing guidance from the federal government as it
applies to Ohio law,” Bohrer said.

It is not known how many people were denied licenses.

Rodriquez’s attorney, Kenneth Robinson, said he, too, has heard of deferred-action eligible
persons being denied by the BMV, but said it does not appear to be an agencywide policy.

Robinson is an immigration attorney with Columbus-based Slowik & Robinson, LLC, which
provides immigration counsel for The Dispatch Printing Company.

“If there is a policy, it’s not being uniformly applied everywhere,” said Robinson, a member of
the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “I’m also left scratching my head to why any state’s
BMV would want to enact policies that not only are contrary to past practices and are contrary to
federal policy, but are fundamentally antithetical to the BMV’s primary purpose: to make
transportation on our roads and waterways safer.”

Joshua Jamerson is a fellow in Ohio University’s E.W. Scripps School of Journalism Statehouse
News Bureau.